Family: Man nearly killed by drunk neighbor in attack over fallen leaves

MACOMB TWP., Mich (WJBK) - A man out raking leaves at hishome last week was nearly killed in his yard by a drunk neighbor, according to his family. The man's girlfriend came to his rescue with her gun, but the damage was already done.

Steve Miller's family says he was out doing the yardwork when his neighbor, Jerry Ficht, came over and accused Steve of blowing leaves onto his lawn. That's when Steve's longtime girlfriend, Bonnie LaRose, says she saw Ficht start attacking.

"He came across the left with a suckerpunch and hit him," Bonnie says.

"As soon as he struck him in the head he started going down, and the neighbor got on top of him and started hitting him in the head," says Bonnie's daughter, Jodie.

Bonnie, a CPL holder, yelled and grabbed her gun and ran outside.

"My boyfriend was bleeding profusely out of the ear. I'm medical, so I know he was probably bleeding from the brain. I straddled my boyfriend and pointed the gun at Jerry, told him to back off," Bonnie says.

She says Ficht was yelling and screaming at her.

"I tried to tell him that I have a gun and I will shoot him," she says. She warned him three times before he went back inside.

An ambulance was called and Steve was rushed to the hospital with a skull fracture and an arterial bleed. He went through four hours of surgery and now has weeks of rehab ahead of him.

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